Welcome to Cruise Critic! If you'd like to participate on our forums by joining in the conversation, please Register Now! Be sure to visit our FAMOUS Roll Call forums, where you can meet other cruisers sailing with you and share a tour or shore excursion and SAVE MONEY!

We find we fly through internet minutes when aboard. We don't do all that much on the computer but it is sometimes very slow. It's worth it to us to have access though and now that I have my cute Acer mini netbook, we will buy the 250 minute package for our Maasdam b-to-b's. (We can carry minutes forward from the first cruise to the next.)

I always buy the 250 minute package and if you bring your own laptop it should suffice. In Juneau you can get free wireless outside the library. In Sitka, go to the visitor center type building near the tender dock and they have free service inside the building. Or walk straight up the road to the coffee place (that also has a drive thru) and you can get service there. I think it is free if you buy something. I have seen crew people there.

On the Ryndam last month the internet log in was touch & go. We had a good signal strength in our suite but the actual "log in" function was down numerous times. And I mean a bunch of times!!

We brought an AT&T air card as a backup. Chances are that if you bring one it won't work on sea days as ours didn't. It did however function in most every port. Watch your cost here however. Our's only added about $20 to my monthly bill but I was careful in how often I utilized it.

Remember to type everything offline first on a Word document then cut & paste it once you've logged in. Save those precious minutes anyway possible.